PENG, Yun Ting
School of Political Science and Economics
One of the biggest concerns of international students is the problem of being alone and not being able to meet other students. I think ICC provides a very good way and opportunity to meet people from other cultures.
The event I attended this time was “Explore Taiwan via tea and local specialties ICC Workshop” held on December 2nd. They invited two company representatives, from Shen Nong Life (神農生活) and Happy Lemon, to introduce Taiwan’s farm products and tea culture. After the presentations, the event organizers provided Taiwan’s unique crackers, candies and three representative teas, Oolong tea, black tea, and Jasmine tea, for participants to enjoy during the chat session.
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- photos by ICC
As an international student, I miss the food and drinks of my home country when I am abroad. It is one of the reasons why I participated in this event. What’s more, no matter how good the food culture in Japan is, it cannot replace Taiwan’s unique flavor in my heart.
In addition, I also made many friends from different countries during this event. As a Taiwanese, I am very happy that they are very curious about the Taiwanese food culture, so I enthusiastically shared with them what I have seen and heard in Taiwan. I hope that after listening to my sharing, our group members felt that Taiwan is a country with beautiful scenery and delicious food. Also, the happiness of your own country being loved by others is indescribable.
Last but not least, in addition to tasting and introducing Taiwan’s tea culture, the chat session was also a good time to practice Japanese and English. Since I just started to learn Japanese, I cannot speak it very well. However, I deeply believe that, if I didn’t practice often, my language ability wouldn’t improve. So at the beginning, when I first met our Japanese group members, I tried to introduce myself in Japanese. Even though I spoke intermittently, I knew that after more and more practicing, one day I would be able to speak as fluently as they did. In order to consider people with limited Japanese, like me, my group spoke mostly in English during the chat session. Despite the fact that I really want to practice Japanese with them more, it is easier for me to express myself completely in English. What’s more, English is spoken often on campus, so it was beneficial to me to practice more as well.
Whenever I attend an ICC event, I can feel the quality getting better each time. The staff is very enthusiastic during the program, and being a participant, I feel that I am respected and valued. I will definitely bring other friends to future ICC events and hope they will feel the same pleasure and happiness.
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- photos by ICC
